Well, I’ve been using it for a week now & it all seems pretty good. I have been checking the cable & motor temp’s after riding & they are comparable to the pre-mod temp’s, so I’m very happy with that.
As for speed & acceleration; It has been off the clock (but only just) on a long flat road, which equates to approx 52mph. That was the extremely over exaggerated ‘Ego’ speedo reading, so in reality my sat-nav reading was 34mph. I’m not entirely sure that the sat-nav reading is that accurate, as most of the roads I used to test on were quite short so it never really got chance to fully catch-up with the Scoota’s movements before it slows again. More tests to come soon. The initial acceleration does not seem much different from the 60 volt version, but it does climb through the speed range alot quicker once it gets going. I compare to the rate at which the 48 volt model does it’s 0 to 15 mph; it now accelerates like that all the way to 35 (ish) on the clock & then slowly gets up to full speed (normally 47mph). It also accelerates up hill a LOT better!
The re-generative breaking system works fine whilst on the stand but is over powering the controller during cruse, so Mike has re-designed & the changes (if all goes to plan) will be put into place over the weekend. Again, more info later.
Charging all the batteries posed a bit of a problem as we could not find a 72 volt charger, but I’ve got over this problem by charging 5 batteries with the 60 volt charger & 1 with my 12 volt charger. This involves disconnecting the 6th battery from the others whilst charging, but they all stay in situ with no need to remove, just disconnection. I bought an enclosure & fitted the 2 chargers in with a cooling fan. It’s nice & simple to use & keeps everything neat & out of the way. Mike had his own plan to charge the batteries, which involved combining the 2 chargers & connecting them in different places. Mike, please explain how………
All in all a damn good result. The Scoota finally feels like it should & how it should of felt like coming out of the factory. Lets face it, it only really cost about £200 extra to get it to this state & I’m sure (in fact I know) I would have paid the extra to have it like this from the start.
I fitted the re-gen switch just above the battery charge point, so when I want to use it I reach down & switch it on. If you let go of the throttle whilst doing this, the Scoota will slow down like you were lightly applying the rear break. If you continue to hold the throttle open, it will simply keep going. Both ways will be putting power back in the batteries.
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